"Have you met the cretins we have in Westminster? Do you think we can be worse than that?" --- Nigel Farage

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Monday, 13 July 2009

This could get nasty, Part IV

As you were. The US and UBS have agreed to delay their court case for three weeks. That might be enough time to offer Swiss nationality to all US citizens with deposits at UBS.

When I was a young student at one of our more ivy-clad universities I had the pleasure of working for a summer at an international banking institution in Basel (a fine institution whose sports club boasted the finest clay tennis courts I have ever seen, coincidentally little more than a backhand lob away from where Roger Federer now lives).

I had two American bosses who took umbrage at the fact that, while they lived in a low tax country, Uncle Sam wanted to tax them at US rates on their worldwide income. So they wrote to their Senators back home. The Senators both wrote back saying that if the Russians were ever to invade (it was during the Cold War), the US Army would come over and get them out.

"You didn't read our letter", replied the Americans. "We are in Switzerland. We have nuclear shelters. If the Russians invade, we want to stay here."

About Me

Alex is an experienced investment banker working in London's Docklands. He is obsessed with personal status, with his work coming second and his family a distant third. His commitment to status requires him to have all of the latest professional gadgets, including an iPad, a BlackBerry and a 4G mobile phone. Alex usually works for Rupert Sterling at Megabank, but has, in the past, worked for Mr Hardcastle as his Head of Corporate Strategy.

Welcome to MEGABANK

Welcome to Megabank. Our history dates back to the founding of First National Bank of Hoboken in 1812, Mexican Peasants Bank in 1870, Robber Barons Inc. in 1873 and Whiteshoe Brothers in 1910.

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